HOW THE WINNERS WERE CHOSEN

In conjunction with Leeds Business School, MT asked Britain’s largest public companies in 25 sectors to evaluate their peers. Each sector comprises a maximum of 10 companies. Using nine criteria, participants rated their sector rivals on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 = poor, 5 = average, 10 = excellent). Analysts at leading City investment firms were also polled. On the basis of these scores, three rankings were arrived at: all 247 companies; top 10 overall on each criterion; and league tables in each sector. In sectors where there are insufficient qualifying listed UK companies, selected privately owned firms, international businesses with significant presence in the UK, and publicly or employee-owned organisations were included. Respondents were also asked to name their most admired leader.